2017年07月10日

The Therm growled something in the Old Tongue and pointed his spear back toward the inn. Get back where you belong, Jon guessed. But where is that? He walked towards the water, and discovered an almost dry spot beneath the leaning daub-and-wattle wall of a tumbledown cottage that had mostly tumbled down.

That was where Ygritte found him sitting, staring off across the rain-whipped lake. “I know this place,” he told her when she sat beside him. “That tower... look at the top of it the next time the lightning flashes, and tell me what you see.” “Aye, if you like,” she said, and then, “Some o’ the Therms are saying they heard noises out there. Shouting, they say.” “Thunder.” “They say shouting. Might be it’s ghosts.” The holdfast did have a grim haunted look, standing there black against the storm on its rocky island with the rain lashing at the lake all around it. “We could go out and take a look,” he suggested. “I doubt we could get much wetter than we are.” “Swimming? In the storm?” She laughed at the notion. “Is this a trick t’ get the clothes off me, Jon Snow?” “Do I need a trick for that now?” he teased. “Or is that you can’t swim a stroke?” Jon was a strong swimmer himself, having learned the art as a boy in Winterfell’s great moat. Ygritte punched his arm. “You know nothing, Jon Snow. I’m half a fish, I’ll have you know.” “Half fish, half goat, half horse... there’s too many halves to you, Ygritte.” He shook his head. “We wouldn’t need to swim, if this is the place I think. We could walk.” She pulled back and gave him a look water sports.

“Walk on water? What southron sorcery is that?” “No sorc -” he began, as a huge bolt of lightning stabbed down from the sky and touched the surface of the lake. For half a heartbeat the world was noonday bright. The clap of thunder was so loud that Ygritte gasped and covered her ears. “Did you look?” Jon asked, as the sound rolled away and the night turned black again. “Did you see?” “Yellow,” she said. “Is that what you meant? Some o’ them standing stones on top were yellow.” “We call them merlons. They were painted gold a long time ago. This is Queenscrown.” Across the lake, the tower was black again, a dim shape dimly seen. “A queen lived there?” asked Ygritte. “A queen stayed there for a night .” Old Nan had told him the story, but Maester Luwin had confirmed most of it. “Alysanne, the wife of King Jaehaerys the Conciliator. He’s called the Old King because he reigned so long, but he was young when he . In those days, it was his wont to travel all over the realm. When he came to Winterfell, he brought his queen, six dragons, and half his court. The king had matters to discuss with his Warden of the North, and Alysanne grew bored, so she mounted her dragon Silverwing and flew north to see the Wall. This village was one of the places where she stopped. Afterward the smallfolk painted the top of their holdfast to look like the golden crown she’d worn when she spent the night among them.” “I have never seen a dragon.” “No one has. The last dragons died a hundred years ago or more. But this was before that.” “Queen Alysanne, you say?” “Good Queen Alysanne, they called her later. One of the castles on the Wall was named for her as well. Queensgate. Before her visit they called it Snowgate.” “If she was so good, she should have torn that Wall down.” No, he thought. The Wall protects the realm. From the Others reenex facial...